WAR ON DRUGS PUTTING MORE WOMEN IN NATION'S PRISONS

The war on drugs has sent an increasing number of women to prison,
according to a study released yesterday.

The drug war has had a "dramatic and disproportionate impact on
women," said the report by The Sentencing Project, a private group
devoted to finding alternatives to imprisonment.

The number of women in state prisons for drug offenses rose from 2,400
in 1986 to 23,700 in 1996, a nearly tenfold increase, the study said.
For non-drug crimes, the number of imprisoned women more than doubled,
rising from 17,200 to 39,400. In other words, drug crimes accounted
for half of the overall increase of women in state prisons.

The numbers for women still are far below the numbers of men in
prison. In 1986, there were 34,400 men in state prisons for drug
crimes, a number that rose to 213,900 in 1996, more than six times as
many.

For non-drug offenses, 391,400 men were imprisoned in 1986, compared
with 767,500, almost twice as many, a decade later. Drug crimes made
up one-third of the total increase.